


Claw Your Way Home

by Babenclaw



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Childhood Memories, Cute things, Gen, This is actually gen wow, look at me go, post kh2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 00:07:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6542341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babenclaw/pseuds/Babenclaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lot of things have changed about the islands and about Sora, but some things will always stay the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Claw Your Way Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [igneousflower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igneousflower/gifts).



For Sora, the hardest part of returning to the islands was facing his bedroom.

He turned slowly in place, taking in all of the details he’d remembered throughout his journey. The ship hanging from the ceiling. His bed nestled up against the window so he could watch the ocean as he fell asleep. The snacks he’d hidden in nooks and crannies, now long gone bad probably. His room hadn’t changed a bit. It felt like a shrine to something Sora wasn’t sure still existed, a memorial to the childlike boy who’d once believed that a wooden raft would take him and his friends to other worlds, a boy who’d believed wholeheartedly in the good at the center of the world.

Sora didn’t feel much like that boy nowadays.

He sat carefully on the edge of his neatly-made bed, peeling the fingerless gloves from his fingers and dropping them on his nightstand. The callouses on his hands felt more real than the bed he was sitting on. He flexed his fingers, feeling the light of his Keyblade from wherever it was when he didn’t need it. He debated calling the blade for a moment before dismissing that light, relaxing his hands and laying back.

Hanging above his head was a white mesh net, filled to the brim with stuffed animals. Sora eyed it for a moment before sitting up, kicking his shoes off, and hopping onto the bed.

 _‘I used to be too short to do this,’_ Sora thought wryly as he dug through the stuffed animals, looking for one in particular. He’d used to need to ask Riku or his mother for help, and later, when it became embarrassing and childish to want to hold any of the well-worn plushes, he’d used his wooden sword to knock them out of the netting. Now he was easily eye-level with the pile.  Just another checkmark on the list of things that had changed since he’d left.

Sora finally found what he was looking for, hidden away at the bottom of the pile. He carefully pulled the star-shaped plush from its resting place and return to sitting on his bed, criss-cross. The plush settled in the hollow between his legs. Its once neon-yellow fleece surface was tinted darker from dirty fingers. It was Sora’s favorite from when he was younger, a gift from one of his best friends. Sora sighed softly, flicking the flimsy green leaves between his fingers.

It was a strangely comforting memory, the sun-warmed glass beneath slightly sticky fingers as Sora pressed his face against it, staring with wide blue eyes at the star-shaped fruit. It only cost 25 munny to try, but Sora had spent his allowance on popsicles earlier that day, thus the sticky fingers. It didn’t stop him from wanting it.

Sora was so focused on the small toy that he hadn’t realized Riku’s return until the boy had poked him in the back with his wooden sword, causing Sora to jump and bang his head against the glass. He turned around and pouted, rubbing his hand against his forehead.

“Whatcha do that for, Riku?” Sora asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Riku smirked and casually twirled his sword.

“Seemed like fun, that’s all.” His aquamarine eyes drifted over to the glass case. “What were you staring at, anyway?”

“N-nothing!” Sora responded quickly, but not before his eyes darted over again, eyeing the plush with longing. Riku laughed and pushed him gently away from the console, digging through his pockets.

“The paopu fruit this time?” Riku asked, feeding the money into the machine. Sora flushed but nodded eagerly.

Riku smirked and turned back to the machine, eyeing the claw and gently nudging the lever to put it into position. Sora bounced excitedly on the tips of his toes, watching closely as Riku made minute adjustments. Both boys watched the claw lower, and Sora cheered when it rose back up, paopu plush firmly in its grasp. The claw released it down the chute where it landed with a quiet flump. Riku reached in and retrieved his prize, passing it off to Sora. Sora hastily wiped his hands on his red shorts before carefully taking the toy, a wide grin on his face.

“Thanks Riku, you’re the best!”

“I know,” Riku responded, but there was a small smile on his own face too.

Sora shook himself back to the present, looking up from the toy in his lap to see Riku leaning in his doorway, a very similar smile on his own face. A lot had changed since those sun-soaked days, but Riku’s eyes were still the same bright color. He was still Riku.

Sora shifted over and patted the space next to him. It was a tight squeeze on the twin bed now—Riku’s legs had gotten longer and Sora wasn’t exactly the shrimpy boy he’d been before—but they made it work. Riku gestured at the toy still in Sora’s lap.

“I can’t believe you kept that old thing,” Riku said. Sora gave him a smile and looked up at the net over his bed.

“You know me, can’t throw anything away,” Sora responded, but the gentle way he held the plush said otherwise. Riku leaned back against the wall, allowing his eyes to drift closed and his shoulders to relax, just a bit. It was familiar, their silence. Sora was still adjusting to the comfort of having his best friends back. His grip tightened on the plush, just for a moment. He had missed this. He had missed them.

Strange as it was, it was nice to be home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to igneous-flower on tumblr for posting the two sentence headcanon that spawned this. It's been bothering me to be written all week. I had so many more important things to do, but here this is anyway. (It was so adorable, I had to.)


End file.
